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The Illustrated Indian:Cultural Contradictions
in the Indians of the Pictorial Press
John CowardFaculty of Communication
The University of Tulsa
Knowing & Seeing Before printing, books were hand-copied, which made them rare and expensive
Before photography, images were hand-drawn or printed by hand, but popular imagery was relatively rare and expensive
The Birth of the Visual In 1800, most Americans had no idea what politicians or other famous people looked like
This changed when the daguerreotype and other photographic technologies arrived in the 1830s & 1840s and started a visual revolution
The Penny Press The mass media “invented” in the 1830s with the development of the Penny Press in New York City
These one-cent newspapers catered to middle- and working-class readers with police and crime news, scandals, and sensationalism
The Appetite for News The Penny Press was the popular press; circulation soared in NYC and elsewhere
Editors began actively seeking news and employed reporters to find it
Reporters began competing for news Faster presses were developed to meet the demands of publishers
NP circulations rise Benjamin Day’s NY Sun reached 10,000 circulation little more than two years
James Gordon Bennett started the NY Herald for $500 in 1835 and reached a circulation of 20,000 in1836
By 1860, the Herald’s circulation was 60,000
Presses at the St. Louis Republic
1806: Screw press ran 35 copies per hour (both sides)
1827: Washington press ran 150 copies per hour
1853: Double cylinder Hoe press ran 1,200 copies per hour
1863: Eight cylinder Hoe press ran 10,000 copies per hour
The Visual Revolution In the 1840s, daguerreotypes amazed the public because they “captured reality”
Editors wanted images to help tell stories and sell newspapers and magazines
The problem: No technology existed to publish photographs in the newspapers until the 1890s
The Visual Revolution, Pt 2 The solution: Employ artists Newspapers hired illustrators and engravers to copy photographs or make drawings in order to illustrate newsworthy people and events
Enterprising editors developed a new product: the pictorial paper, combining the popular appeal of the Penny Press and the visual impact of the image
Rise of the Pictorial Press First American pictorial paper: Gleason’s Pictorial Drawing Room Companion, founded in Boston in 1852
First successful American pictorial paper: Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, founded in New York in 1855
Harper’s Weekly followed in 1857
Images and the Civil War The war was good for business The demand for images was high Leslie’s circulation climbed to 160,000 during the war; Harper’s climbed to 120,000
The pictorial press created a new editorial position: the “special artist” who drew images from the battlefield
The Illustrated Indian After the Civil War, the pictorial press sent artists west in search of excitement and action
Theodore Davis and Alfred Waud, both Civil War artists, covered Indians and the West
The Illustrated Indian, Pt 2 In the post-Civil War era and Gilded Age, the illustrated press was the major source of popular Indian imagery
Indian imagery varied, but war images dominated the popular imagination
Battles scenes were newsworthy and exciting
The Illustrated Indian, Pt. 3 Significantly, scenes of Indian warriors and Indian fighting supported and sustained a national ideology about the correctness of conquest and expansion
Indian war imagery cast Indians as obstacles to western expansion and enemies of civilization and progress
A Contradiction Indian war illustrations made sense as long as the fighting continued
The illustrations made less “news sense” as the Indian wars ended
Despite new ways of representing Indians, war imagery persisted and remained enormously popular
The Myth Lives On (And On) Manifest Destiny was (and is) a powerful part of our national myth
The myth depends on a deficient but worthy enemy
In the post-war pictorial press, Indians were most popular as colorful but deadly adversaries, even when the illustrations were made up
Pictorial Press Examples Theodore Davis travels west in 1865 His stage attacked by Indians in Kansas
Davis writes four stories about the attack and illustrates it twice, making it one of the most well-documented incidents of its kind
The stage attack becomes a visual cliché
Pictorial Press Examples
Henry Farny goes west in 1881 He took photos to improve his accuracy
His illustrations and paintings mostly non-violent, pastoral Indian scenes
Farny acclaimed in his lifetime, but largely forgotten or overlooked today
Pictorial Press Examples
Frederic Remington covers the Geronimo campaign for Harper’s in 1886
He saw no action but took photos, depicting Indians and other Western “types”
Following Social Darwinism, Remington creates detailed images of racially distinct Indian faces
Pictorial Press Examples Remington’s greatest success as an illustrator comes not from realistic images but from his imaginary drawings of Indian battles
In 1889, he published “The Last Lull in the Fight,” a “last stand” scene, one of several such imaginary drawings & another visual cliché
In 1890, he painted “The Last Stand,” a battle that took place when he was 15
Fact vs. Romance Despite the rise of photography and the “realist turn” in the Gilded Age, romantic notions of Indian conquest trumped realistic depictions of Indians and Indian fighting
Americans wanted—and the pictorial press delivered—the sizzle, not the steak
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